6 GEOLOGICAL EXCURSIOK. 



Ingleton, coal is worked on a formation wliich a few miles to the nortli 

 is found at the very summit of Whernside. 



. Leaving Ingleton and its pretty river^ skirting the base of Inglebro, and 

 following the line of the Craven fault, we reached Clapham, where are the 

 celebrated Inglebro caves, and from whence is the easiest ascent to the 

 top of that hill, the central summit of the group, and the view from 

 which is the most varied and extensive. 



The cave above Clapham is in a deep glen, amid a mass of most pic- 

 turesque wood. The entrance is at the foot of a high Limestone precipice; 

 on one side of it, from under a dark rocky arch, like that of a glacier, 

 issues a full stream, connected with that of Gaping Gyll, (a deep hole at 

 the foot of Inglebro,) and receiving the waters which run through the cave. 

 As we entered it we heard them on all sides, moaning as they forced a 

 way through its narrow and devious passages, splashing as they fell from rock 

 to rock in its hidden recesses, now issuing into the cave and dancing along 

 in the more open channel, then with a bubble disappearing down some 

 funnel-like cavity, then reappearing and forming deep clear pools, the trans- 

 parent depths of which shewed beds of silvery white spar, and whose sleeping 

 surface reflected the elegant yet fantastic shapes of the sparkling snowy 

 stalactites that hung from the roof. 



The cave is formed between two beds of rock — possibly by the erosion 

 of the softer parts, perhaps by a slip of the beds on each other, when their 

 surfaces would of course no longer fit closely. It is low and very wide 

 in proportion at its entrance, extending on both sides till the floor and 

 the roof generally meet each other. As we passed into the cave it became 

 more confined, the sides being filled up with stalactite matter which is 

 continually, though very slowly, finishing its task; in many places it is 

 so low that we could only get on on our hands and knees. The stalac- 

 tites are found most frequently on the lines of fracture which cross the 

 cave, and, where the rock being broken the roof rises higher than usual, 

 their form is generally a mass of circular pendants; or else they assume 

 the form of a tightened skin, tapering at the bottom to one side, owing 

 to the water running down the opposite side, and increasing the stalactite 

 laterally. They are peculiarly musical, and when struck by the guides 

 give out beautiful tones. These are the places where the water oozes 

 drop by drop from the fissures in the Limestone, which have permitted it 

 to penetrate slowly through its mass, collecting in its progress the Car 

 bonate of Lime which it here deposits. 



C To he continued.) 



